Collaboration

Sometimes a dirty word (WW-II, Cold War, et al.), collaboration is now taking on its more general meaning -- cooperating on a project. The internet, especially with higher speed connections, is making possible co-authoring of documents in a way that (should/could?) actually work for many people.

I was an early user of Writely, now known as Google Documents and Spreadsheets. I've followed changes in the transition to Google, and I was recently reminded that this transition is mostly complete when the kid (sorry guy, I really do know your age) mentioned it.

Alas, I found that even my geeky kids rejected collaborative editing as too geeky for real people. My real need, for 75 musicians to participate, seems far out of reach. Which introduces a side issue: why don't people write (or even read) any more? I don't even mean "write well". Just write anything beyond a quick and dirty email.

Just whinging. Sure would be nice if people could catch on, though.